Firm must refund fake parking fines
Published 10:37 pm Friday, December 14, 2007
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — A private parking company that left official-looking but fake citations on cars parked in free lots in the Bay Area will have to reimburse people who paid the tickets, according to the Marin County district attorney’s office.
Under terms of a settlement reached with Parking Control Service Inc., the company will refund all parking charges paid by drivers from March 2003 through Wednesday, if those people submit a valid claim. The company will also pay $100,000 in civil penalties and $30,000 to Marin and Sonoma counties for the cost of their two-year investigation into the practices.
According to Marin County District Attorney Edward Berberian, PCS monitors free public and private parking lots at shopping centers and other places. From 2003 to this month, employees of the company would leave written notices that looked like government-issued tickets on cars that allegedly violated the posted parking rules or state laws, Berberian said.
